Manhattan and Chinatown
by Wang Huning
Wang Huning is a member of the Chinese pulitburo. He is widely considered on of the most powerful theoreticians in China, and works as head of the Chinese Policy Research Office and chairman of the Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilization.
In 1991 Wang Huning toured the US as a visiting scholar. He wrote a book about his experiences, called America Against America. Despite being subject to a lot of media attention some years ago, this book has never been fully translated.
In this chapter of America Against America, Huning describes his impressions in New York’s Chinatown, a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. Some of the footnotes were taken from a partial translation of America Against America by the Something Awful user Kangxi.
The plane arrived in New York; I got off and picked up my luggage. Once you arrive in New York, you will feel a sense of anxiety since the crime rate here is extremely high. After everyone had gone, there was still no sign of my friend who had agreed to pick me up. Because I was afraid of encountering a mugger, I was quite apprehensive. To my relief, my friend came half an hour later.
After leaving the airport, we went straight to the United Nations building. The UN building is a magnificent building. We went to the Security Council and had our pictures taken. Then we went to the UN General Assembly and found a seat for the Chinese delegation and took a picture of it. We also took a picture of each other giving a speech at the UN podium. While visiting the UN, I saw beautiful and valuable gifts from various countries such as an ivory sculpture from China, a royal boat from Thailand, and a picture from the Soviet Union.
This the display of gifts shows that the citizens of the world want to improve their reputations at the United Nations, but how many countries actually believe in the principles of the UN? It's like people in an organization that everyone wants to join it and they say how much they love it, but then go against its principles at every turn. In today's world of pluralistic interests, ideological barriers and conflicts, it is true that the UN does not play the role it should. However, the UN has also played a role that cannot be underestimated, especially in socio-economic and cultural development. The Iran-Iraq ceasefire is also an outstanding example of conflict resolution. The world today is still a world that needs to be controlled by human beings. Looking at the statue of a sword turned into a plow in front of the United Nations building, one wonders what methods we can use to melt the sword. Past history has shown that many believe that warfare can be a means of turning swords into plowshares, and the result has always been that plowshares are turned into swords.1
New York's Chinatown feels quite familiar in style. It seems slightly dirtier than other places. It is said that Chinatown is a complex area, where all the phenomena unique to the Chinese are present. It reminds me of Bai Yan’s The Ugly Chinaman.2 I didn't walk much in Chinatown, but from the outside, there are many small businesses. In this bustling area, looking at the signs full of Chinese characters, it reminds me of the distant China. This area is in stark contrast to other parts of Manhattan. One evokes Chinese culture, the other tells of Western culture. Comparing America and China is a constant topic for almost all Chinese scholars and international students in the United States. Within this discussion are two perennial issues: economic development and political democracy.
The economic success and technological progress achieved by the United States in this century is there for all to see, and no country in the world has yet surpassed it. Although the Japanese are aggressive, coming to the economic forefront despite starting later, they still cannot match the United States in terms of military power, cultural influence, and material resources. This begs the question of what role the economic development of the United States has played in its political development. In both areas, the U.S. is the world's most visible country.
China is much lacking in these two areas. Thus, both aspects of the modernization process are much debated in theoretical circles. How can China's economic modernization be achieved? The fundamental question is whether the process of economic modernization can be completed under collectivization. Few developed countries in the world today are communist. This reality is the biggest challenge to people's thinking. The next question is how does political democracy develop? In tandem with the economy, or not in tandem? One argument is that economic modernization cannot be achieved without political democracy; the retort is that Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea did not have political democracy during their economic take-off stage; Hong Kong was under colonial rule, Taiwan was a one-party dictatorship, and South Korea was under military rule.3 Another argument is that when the economy develops, conditions for political democracy become available, examples being the democratization movements in newly industrialized regions and countries; the counter-argument is also strong: the developed Western countries were not really economically developed before the bourgeois revolution, far from the economic strength of some developing countries today, but the basic institutions of a democratic republic were established. This is a question that Chinese theorists must think about for a long time.
Economic development is an independent phenomenon. Either autocracy or democracy may promote or inhibit economic development. The matter of concern is what societal changes will be conducive to the development of political democracy after economic development. Because of their lack of economic development, developing countries have no choice but to economically rely on developed countries, mainly for high-tech equipment, precision instruments and so on. But this also depends on the stage of development of each country, African countries, for example, need mainly food to maintain basic living conditions. Whatever the need, the result is a special exchange mechanism: developing countries have to offer their best products to exchange with developed countries. Thus, people in developing countries cannot enjoy the best things produced in their own countries, not even the second-best products. This is because the second-best products are intended for consumption by foreigners who come to these countries. Products from all countries and regions are available in the U.S. market: China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, etc. The best products from all countries and regions of the world flock to the U.S. market in exchange for U.S. dollars. As everyone wants to obtain dollars, strong competition is formed, and the products are of high quality but low price. This situation has caused an unprecedented boom in the U.S. market. This was the result of the market mechanism and the benefit to the U.S. of the world currency reserve status of the U.S. dollar as determined by the Bretton Woods Conference after World War II.4
1The statue he is referring to is Evgeniy Vuchetich's Let Us Beat Swords into Ploughshares, a quotation from the Book of Isaiah. Vuchetich (1908-1974) was a Soviet sculptor, most notable for his gigantic statue at the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad memorial complex, The Motherland Calls.
2Bo Yang (1920-2008) was the pen name of a Taiwanese dissident and writer. He was arrested in Taiwan in 1967 for translating a Popeye the Sailor comic in a way that was said to defame the country's then-dictator, Chiang Kai-Shek. After his release from prison in 1977, he published a book of harshly satirical essays called The Ugly Chinaman where he vents his spleen at Chinese culture and political beliefs.
3Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea were referred to as the 'Four Asian Tigers' for their rapid industrialization and economic growth in the latter half of the twentieth century. Taiwan is a liberal democracy now, but in the 1980s it was only in the middle of political reforms, and the 'temporary provisions' of martial law were not yet lifted. South Korea had its first free and fair presidential elections in 1987, shortly before this book was published. Hong Kong's elections were only introduced a few years before the handover to China in 1997. Singapore still has elections but the People's Action Party has held a dominant position since 1959.
4The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, to regulate the international monetary and financial order after the conclusion of World War II. Agreements were signed that, after legislative ratification by member governments, established the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, later part of the World Bank Group) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This led to what was called the Bretton Woods system for international commercial and financial relations. The Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates collapsed after 1971, but the international economic institutions and agreements that resulted after the conference are still around. The US dollar was and is still the world's foremost reserve currency, used to denominate transactions between central banks.
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